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Thursday, January 20, 2011

Gold Occurrences in Rhode Island

Gold occurrences in Rhode Island are not the subject of many reports, however there is the story of the Durfee Hill Gold Mine in Glocester, Rhode Island where there are reports of the remains of a stamping mill and cyanide vats on the site.  There are also some mine shafts that are sunk into the ground nearby.  There are no apparent reports of gold in quartz veins. There are however, reports of gold with pyrite in the quartz veins. The reports of the latter is from Kent County, to the west of Warwick.

Gold bearing pyrite crystals in quartz.
Photo by Rob Lavinsky

Gold that occurs in Rhode Island in three different types of deposits:

One type of gold is found in veins of hydrothermal deposits where the gold often occurs as the native metal in quartz veins.

The second type of gold is often found in his placer deposits in sand and gravel on the beds of streams or on beaches fronting on the ocean. Gold is often panned from this type of deposits by taking advantage of its great density in relation to other minerals. Gold is 19.3 times as dense as water and most of the minerals that occurs with our only three times as dense as water. Placer gold can be found in virtually any stream or river in the world in quantities large enough to see what it looks like.

Gold in quartz.
Photo by Rob Lavinsky

In a 1927 issue of the American Mineralogist by Lloyd Fisher and Charles G. Doll of Brown University in volume 12, pages 427 to 436 you can find a listing of the different minerals that are found in the state of Rhode Island.

This is what they said about the area around Durfee Hill, “Glocester (Durfee Hill) epidote, molybdenite, pyrite and phyrottite are present.


The third type of deposits are found in generally associated with pyrite and other metal sulfides where the gold actually appears as a thin film between the crystals of sulfide. 

Another area where gold was then reported in the past is around Johnstown where there are also some old mine workings were a dibase dike cuts across the granites and schists. This is another area that still has old cyanide vats and sluice boxes. When the local chemists reports that the locality has shown a trace of platinum group metals in the mine tailings.

Finally there has been Gold reported at the old South Foster gold mine locality where gold was produced mainly from pyriteferous quartz veins.  There are said to be still visible at this locality four open pits that are now filled with water along with the ruins of a large stamp mill.

One of the areas in Newport, Rhode Island, Purgatory Cliffs, has attracted the attention of the author because the cliffs are made out of a quartz pebble conglomerate with crystals of magnetite in the binding material between the pebbles. There is often an association between gold and magnetite. Another area is found in the black sands of the beaches in southern Rhode Island west of Narragansett Bay.

Although these last places are strictly speculative the geology is right for finding gold, and as far as that goes the entire set of rocks along the western side of Rhode Island where borders with Connecticut is another area that geologically is a good place to search for gold especially in placer deposits in the streambeds of the area.

12 comments:

  1. There is gold in Rhode Island !..I will have some of it this coming spring!

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  2. Did you find gold in Rhode island? Have you ever smelt gold ore?

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  3. I 've been hunting for almost a year. I have found super micro fine gold. But haven't been able to find that one piece. I know it's out there somewhere. Any clues on where to find a solid specimen filled with gold.

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    1. Have you looked in Foster?
      What else have you found in RI?
      Have you ever found a small dark purple, transparent,heavy, magnetic stone that tests as diamond or sapphire on a diamond tester?

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    2. Have you looked in Foster?
      What else have you found in RI?
      Have you ever found a small dark purple, transparent,heavy, magnetic stone that tests as diamond or sapphire on a diamond tester?

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  4. I've been searching for crystals just for fun in West Warwick along the pawtuxet river and have come across some outcrops with high mineralization (dark red staining) with veins of quarts containing some copper alot of pyrite and just some strange looking minerals in it.. Would anyone here be willing to help me identify the samples I have?

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    1. What part of west Warwick are you describing in you post? Do you have any pictures of the specimens you found? Would you happen to know a gemologist or someone qualified to identify raw gemstones? I'm a pretty determined prospector and I have some specimens that need to be determined. I'm willing to compensate if I can get good money for them.

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    2. I know of a few ri spots that have been gold mined in the past...I'm looking for some new places to go..if anyone knows of a spot and wants to go let me know. . I'm definitely interested in going with someone who has a little bit of knowledge. ...

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    3. David King, I'd like to get in touch with you, I'm in RI and new to prospecting. Are you on FB?

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    4. David King, I am Jeffrey Allard, find me on FB, I live in Woonsocket and profile picture is me sitting on a maroon leather chair. Please find me I want to connect with you.

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    5. Does anybody know if there is any spots in Warwick that I could possibly prospect free gold I'm not looking for gold on a large scale because obviously that probably won't happen but please let me know if anybody knows this I would really appreciate it

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  5. I NEED HELP GETTING THE GOLD ORE IN W,W !

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